My 1982, 258 CID, stick, cj7 is refusing to start. If I turn the key there is a loud CLICK but nothing else. If I try to turn it on with the lights on they go out. then if I go touch these 2 wires with plugs I found dangling (one of the three wires from the ignition coil-red with plug and a black one with a longer plug.) If I keep them grounded it makes no difference trying to start. I am also not seeing a spark coming from the ignition coil plug that feeds to the distributor cap. I tried replacing the ignition coil but still nothing.... could this be a ignition module failure? Can anyone direct me to steps to diagnose what could be wrong without buying a bunch of unneeded parts? Thank you in advance!

Brush your battery terminals to make sure there's good contact. Check your ground strap to make sure the battery is able to ground. If all those check out, try a battery from another vehicle that you know works.

The sole click of the starter is a classic sign of either a dead battery or poor grounding/terminal connections.

Could be a bad starter solenoid. Jumper around it with a jumper cable and see if it turns over properly. If so install new solenoid. Also might be a bad starter. Have someone turn the key and see if you feel the starter trying to engage.

When the ignition circuit is energized it draws alot of amps. If you're system was functioning properly you'd notice the lights dim slightly when you start it. In your case, there is a restriction in current flow somewhere. So when you try and start it the ignition is sucking the power from wherever it can in an effort to start the Jeep, hence the lights go out.

All the above are good places to start looking. You say the battery was tested, did they do a load test on it as well? In addition to the above suggestions I'd look at your battery cables. The smaller gauge discount store cheap ones can corrode inside the sheathing and restrict the current alot.....first hand experience with that one!

One of the reasons it was urgent I fixed the problem was because I planned to pull the engine the next day I planned to pull the engine to start a rebuild the next day (I will start a thread when I get a little farther) and I didn't want to do anything unless I knew i could get it running afterwards. Everything went rather smooth, the next day i brought to my school where I will have space to work on it in the engines lab. I went back to my jeep to bring it to the forklift and it wouldn't start. Luckily I realized that it was the EXACT problem I had with my cj. Quick fix and everything is good, but talk about a coincidence!

One of the reasons it was urgent I fixed the problem was because I planned to pull the engine the next day I planned to pull the engine to start a rebuild the next day (I will start a thread when I get a little farther) and I didn't want to do anything unless I knew i could get it running afterwards. Everything went rather smooth, the next day i brought to my school where I will have space to work on it in the engines lab. I went back to my jeep to bring it to the forklift and it wouldn't start. Luckily I realized that it was the EXACT problem I had with my cj. Quick fix and everything is good, but talk about a coincidence!